McClenathan will start No. 5 at Gators

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2010 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 3 of 23
41st annual NHRA GATORNATIONALS
Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway
March 12-14, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501; cell 203-243-2438;
jstropus@earthlink.net

McCLENATHAN WILL START NO. 5 AT GATORS

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 13, 2010) - NHRA Top Fuel points leader Cory
McClenathan qualified the FRAM Top Fuel dragster in the No. 5 position for
the 41st annual NHRA Gatornationals today.

Only three rounds of qualifying were held because of rain on Friday, and
"Cory Mac" registered his quickest pass in the final session today of 3.830
seconds at 303.03 mph. He slowed slightly at the beams because of a burst of
flame out of the engine. His previous two laps were a tire-smoking
8.407/78.10 (No. 13) and a 3.835/317.79 (No. 6)

³The weekend has been pretty good so far," said McClenathan. "It was a
little more eventful on that last run than what we wanted, but when you have
a day of rain like we did here on Friday, it always kind of takes everybody
back. 

"We went out there on Friday on our only run and shook the tires, so coming
in today I thought the FRAM team would be a little bit more calm about their
approach and they weren't. We went out there and ran a 3.83 and we ended up
sixth going into the last session.

"We really thought we had a good package to try and run a 3.80-flat, but I
went out there and at about 800 feet it immediately smoked the tires. I
tried to get my foot off and hit the pedal a little bit, but these cars
donıt like that. They get very unhappy about that and the motors donıt like
that extra fuel going in there and it ended up knocking the panels out and
obviously set off all of the safety things like the parachutes, and shut off
the fuel.

"The FRAM guys are working on it. Itıs not really hurt, but my feelings are
hurt a little bit because that took away low E.T. because it was well on its
way to running a 3.79 or 3.80-flat.

³Tomorrow weıre going to try to go down the track four times and win this
thing, but like everything else, we always take it one round at a time here
in the FRAM pit. Weıve been on a good run lately and weıve got a good group
of guys and a good car, so if the driver does his job, weıre going to be
okay.²
 
McClenathan faces Bobby Lagana in the opening round of Sunday's
eliminations.

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